The Education and Skills & Qualifications sections are two different things. Degrees, school or university name, year of graduation go in the Education section of your resume. Recent graduates might also consider mentioning their grade point average and honours. Professionals who are midway into their careers may list their education after the Work Experience section, as this brings more attention to their professional and practical achievements. Skills, computer literacy, certificates, languages etc. go in the Skills & Qualifications section and must be relevant to the job you are applying for and to your objective.

Don’t mention anything personal that is not related to the job. Age, date of birth, marital status, and social insurance number shouldn’t be mentioned at all. The use of photos is not recommended either unless your personal appearance is a key to this particular job. For example: TV host, movie actor. Your career objective statement should be short, clear and to the point. It is an objective relevant to your current resume not to your personal plans for the next five years. Don’t forget to mention the specific position you are interested in, and a professional summary, proving that you are qualified for this job.

The use of action verbs and numbers helps to demonstrate accomplishment, especially when it comes to the description of your qualifications and work experience. Simply listing your duties and responsibilities is not enough; add some impact to your work experience, mention the numbers of new clients you attracted to a company, the results of the campaign you implemented, the percentage of increase in annual sales you contributed to, etc. Remember that your resume may be read by a computer. Resume-scanning software is set up in a way that it picks up keywords and industry jargon related to a certain job posting. Before writing a resume, re-read the job description and write down all the buzzwords you see. These are usually nouns. It will help you to create an effective resume and cover letter.